Anti-Colonial Struggle

In 1955, after a long but unsuccessful struggle to attain their freedom by peaceful means,
the people of Cyprus took up arms against the colonial power. The British Government, in
its attempt to thwart the Cyprus people's aspirations for self-determination, exploited the
presence in Cyprus of the Turkish Cypriot minority, and sought assistance from Turkey in
obstructing the natural trend of events in Cyprus. After some hesitation the Turkish
Government accepted the invitation to intervene in Cyprus, in defiance of its solemn
undertaking under the Treaty of Lausanne, and a section of the Turkish Cypriot minority in
Cyprus became the instrument both of British colonialism and of a new expansionist
tendency in Turkey. The British Government, moreover threatened that if selfdetermination
were ever to be achieved in Cyprus the result would be the partition of the
island since the Turkish Cypriot minority would be offered the right to self-determination
separately. That threat might have been intended to discourage the Cypriot people's
struggle for freedom, but its consequences were quite different. Instead, the partition of
Cyprus became an objective of Turkish foreign policy and a number of Turkish Cypriots
took up arms against the Cypriot freedom fighters while the Turkish Cypriot leadership
advocated either partition or the continuation of British colonial rule.